Values and Lifestyles

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Description of Values and Lifestyles. Explanation.

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Definition Values and Lifestyles. Description.

Values and Lifestyles is a way of market segmentation whereby consumers are segmented into mutually exclusive groups like "Achievers" or "Experiencers" based on their psychographics. Acronym is VALS.

The original VALS system was built by consumer futurist Arnold Mitchell, trying to explain changing U.S. values and lifestyles in the 1970s. Originally, there were three categories of consumers:

Need-directed. Consumers who make purchasing decisions based solely on need.
Outer-directed. Consumers who make purchases based on their perceptions of the way others view them.
Inner-directed. Consumers who make purchasing decisions out of some inner need.

In 1978, the concept was adopted by consulting firm SRI International who also own the trademark.

In 1989, VALS was redefined to maximize its ability to predict consumer behavior. A team of experts from SRI International, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley, determined that consumers should be segmented on the basis of enduring personality traits rather than social values that change over time.

The current eight VALS types are: Innovators, Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers, and Survivors. Each group is based on two dimensions: primary motivation (ideals, achievement, and self-expression) and resources (energy, self-confidence, intellectualism, novelty seeking, innovativeness, impulsiveness, leadership, and vanity).

VALS segmentation unlike traditional segmentation begins with people instead of products and classifies them into different types, each characterized by a unique style of living - it then determines how marketing factors fit into their lives. This perspective provides a three-dimensional view of the target consumer.

Some of the uses to which VALS segmentation has been put are:

To identify whom to target and find niche markets much more easily.
To locate where concentrations of your target group lives.
To gain insight into why the target group acts the way it does.
To improve and introduce products that speak to customers' values.
To target marketing and advertising campaigns much more effectively and much more accurately.
To position products much more accurately in the marketplace. .

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	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Strivers Profile Strivers are trendy and fun loving. Because they are motivated by achievement, Strivers are concerned about the opinions (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Experiencers Profile Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. As young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers, Experiencers quickly bec (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Makers Profile Like Experiencers, Makers are motivated by self-expression. They express themselves and experience the world by working (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Achievers Profile Achievers are motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goal-oriented lifestyles and a deep commitment to (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Believers Profile Like Thinkers, Believers are motivated by ideals. They are conservative, conventional people with concrete beliefs based (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Thinkers Profile Thinkers are motivated by ideals. They are mature, satisfied, comfortable, and reflective people who value order, knowle (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Innovators Profile Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant reso (...)

	Values and Lifestyles (VALS) - Survivors Profile Survivors live narrowly focused lives. With few resources with which to cope, they often believe that the world is chang (...)

	Lifestyle Segmentation: Experiencers What are the type of people who make up experiencers... What profession and age? (...)

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Compare with: Positioning | Market Segmentation | Focus Group | JICNARS Scale | 8 Hidden Needs

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